Topspurs on the 3-2 win and Arry's record

yiddo59 · 21-11-2010 12:02pm #1

Duggan don't half talk some sense sometimes

http://www.topspurs.com/jmdview.htm

Especially good on Arry's record

20th November 2010 – Arsenal 2-3 Spurs
Another week, another momentous result for Spurs and for the first time since Omar’s brief reign in the mid 80s, a Spurs manager talking about the club as title contenders. It can get better than this, but it’s pretty high up the scale of fan enjoyment at the moment. I was lucky enough to be at Scumbury Spurs win on new years day 1985 when a more modest 1-0 half time deficit was turned into a 2-1 win to send Spurs to top of the league but the achievement of turning over a much stronger Arsenal side from a 2-0 deficit with the now well known “away at the sky4” curse extending to 69 games over 17 years hanging over the team was something extra special. As much as I’ve enjoyed the current Spurs success, I’ve been left largely unmoved by Spurs and football in general for about five years now (I enjoy it now but not like I used to when it had the illusion of meaning something) but every now and then it comes back – the heart racing, the lump in the throat and fortunately today was one of those days and it was great to be back amongst you – albeit probably fleetingly.
Spurs have made it their style to give away soppy leads in important games before roaring back with fantastic comebacks and even at half time I had a feeling if Spurs could score the next goal it was n’t all over. My facebook update at the time of “another massive comeback on the cards” was mostly ignored and probably taken in jest but this Spurs squad is the real deal, and its great to always have that hope.
Top billing today goes to Gallas who was awesome, and every bit as good as the player who has excelled for Chelsea and Arsenal during an exceptionally distinguished career. It was a bold move to make him captain, just as through fans eyes it was a bad move to bring him to the club (because he had the audacity to play for another club or two before Spurs). However our brilliant manager just knows good players and bad players and by his comments is a world away from the nutcase fanaticism which has replaced friendly rivalry. Goons do not eat children, they are just like you and me, living in the same areas, doing the same jobs but follow another team. We enjoy seeing our team win and don’t like it when they lose. It would be wise to remember this when all the nonsense starts to carry some people away, which includes the sniveling goon who got caught up in the bull**** refused to shake Gallas hand before the game.
TOPSPURS has been going over 10 years now and it started out hoping Glenn Hoddle was the messiah with the sunshine football to bring Spurs back and has seen a succession of managers come and go over the years. There was no emperors new clothes about the assessments - Pleat was always ****, Santini was lost, perhaps did not give Jol the credit he deserved at the start and Ramos was just random – but once we got Harry Redknapp (and ditched the awful director of football nonsense), Spurs rise has been meteoric and I’ve been solidly behind him as he has exceeded expectation after expectation.
The crazy thing is, he is still not universally loved amongst the fans which is nothing short of astonishing and pretty ungrateful. But here it is one more time. October 2008, a league cup final hangover which had lasted 6 months saw Spurs in disarray with 2 points from 8 games. Redknapp dumped the easy life down in Pompey near his home and very quickly started turning Spurs around – unluckily missing out on silverware on penalties before guiding Spurs to a top half finish in his first season, before qualifying Spurs for the CL by obtaining the highest points haul for 25 years in his second season, while maintaining the progress with CL progress including beating the current Euro Champs this season. He has a 1.72 points per game and the facts suggest he is the best performing Spurs manager of all time http://www.topspurs.com/thfc-managers-index.htm
Virtually all the signings have worked and he has also mended virtually every out of form/forgotten player in the club to be able to form some part of the squad. What is not to like? If you cant love Harry, you have an emotional deficit which football is unlikely to fill. And long may Harry continue – hopefully with a bit more love from the fans. Remember it was a week after the Inter win and 10 days before the Arsenal win that Spurs were booed off after a 1-1 home draw with a team who later that week beat Chelsea 3-0. From up here, it’s a long way down and those years in the wilderness for Spurs were pretty drab.
After Gallas and the manager, there are a host of candidates who deserved to be lauded for their exploits. Bale was again sensational – the touch before his shot to score was just perfection and along with Van Der Vaart, their all-round games are just brilliant. I was very skeptical that the knock down price of VDV was anything other than a sign there was something wrong with him but it looks the bargain of this or any other season. He has all of Berbatov’s skill but with the team ethic, making the Bulgarian look distinctly one dimensional and disruptive. Along with Modric, we have to hope and pray they stay free from injury
Alongside Gallas, Kaboul has come on a lot in his second spell at Spurs and wrote his name in the history books with the decisive goal. Once again Gomes made the match turning save at 2-2 brilliantly turning wide Fabregas curling shot and its great to see players like Hutton and Jenas who have returned from spells outside the team better than ever. It was also good to see Defoe back (and what a leap for the assist in that first goal) and lets not forget, there are still plenty of quality players out injured. Its only going to get better.
One aside from the day was seeing VDV get booked for celebrating the penalty. In contrast, one remember Henry run the length of the pitch at Scumbury to slide on his knees in front of the Spurs fans without rebuke. Officialdom have some funny applications of justice

Dublin Spur · 21-11-2010 11:05pm

excellent - Jim is usually bang on the money in my Book

Anto12 · 22-11-2010 9:48am

Thats a super article - Got me thinking if Sunderland had done us at the lane some people would have been calling for Harrys head .. Then they went out and hammered Chelsea .. granted I still think we should have beaten Sunderland at home .. but that win on Saturday has to be 1 of the greatest if not the greatest premiership win for us .. I couldnt believe it as our 1st half performance was poor eneough .. Just hope we can do the job on Wed night and qualify for the last 16 of the Champions league ... Who would ever have thought a few years ago .. that 1 we would beat the gooners away then play champions league football the following wednesday night followed on by the Pool coming to the lane !!! COYS !!!!:):)